The thinking behind this blog is really simple: The guilty should be prevented from reoffending and the innocent should not be convicted -- not very complex but often not achieved.

The spotlight is also thrown on feral law enforcement

Monday, May 18, 2009

A truly frightening story

There is no doubt to me that the US is becoming a "police state." By that I mean a nation where the police have ceased to protect individuals but become agents of the state. Instead of keeping the peace, remember they were once called peace officers, they have become law enforcement officers. Their function is more and more that of enforcing state policy and protecting the government.

When I was a youngster the very idea of police officers breaking into homes in the middle of the night, armed to the teeth, guns drawn, and screaming at terrified citizens, was unthinkable. Now these armed thugs do it routinely, over the most trivial of offenses. Even the smallest of town, for no conceivable reason, has SWAT teams. We have police forces using tanks as if they are in the center of some war. As horrifying as the militarization of our police has become, what the Explorer Scouts are doing is truly disgusting.

Across the United States we are witnessing the Scouts training young people to be armed government agents. This is directly related to the escalation of violence which the police are using routinely in the United States. Thirty years ago dogs weren't routinely killed by cops. Today it happens over and over. And I can assure you, that in the last thirty years, it wasn't the dogs that got more violent and deadly. It was the police. As I've said before, having anything to do with law enforcement today, is potentially deadly to you. Now we have the Scouts training youth to act like violent cops.

Here is what the New York Times reported on this trend:

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

It is all quite a step up from the square knot.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

What the f*ck is happening to this country? This is what we are teaching teenagers! I cringe to think how far down the fascistic road this country will go before things change for the better.

The Explorer Scouts say no one has criticized the program. Apparently the only problem they have is police officers who work with them molesting the youth they are training. Now they require them to have "sexual misconduct training" to try and prevent the problem.

It should be no surprise that Homeland Security, the American Gestapo, is heavily involved in these programs. One Border Patrol agent for Homeland Security said the reason for the training is "to create more agents." Worse yet: "Explorer posts are attached to various agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation... that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops." One government agent said the program's emphasis "is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling."

Anyone who is supporting the Scouts at any level really needs to reconsider. I won't even buy Girl Scout cookies anymore.

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Dedication

In memory of Fatty Arbuckle, a good and innocent man whose movie career as a comedian was ruined by an opportunistic prosecution. The woman he was accused of murdering almost certainly died of natural causes. He was eventually cleared but the damage was done.

A thought

I love the Mae West story where some judge wearing a robe during the middle of the day, and seated in a high chair peered down and asked her, 'Are you showing contempt for my court?' To which she replied, 'I’m doing my best not to show it, your honor.' Maybe we need to give up trying to not show it."